US Senator wants to research the Impact of violent games and has proposed a congress bill

Stop blaming games.

Video games always get blamed after an unfortunate shooting event where kids or people in general end up dying, and people try to find out why the shooter did that or what his motivation was.

The tendency of such people to connect events to random things like video games, and the general effect of such games on people’s psyche have come under scrutiny for a long time.

It’s no secret that games can sometimes go overboard with violence, but they are still games, they shouldn’t be able to motivate people–sane or insane–to go on a killing spree.

There could be a variety of causes for people to do that, and isolating it to video games is unjust and emphatically wrong.

However, that’s not the point of the article though. US Senator Jay Rockefeller has proposed a new Congress bill to research the impact of video games on young people. This is no ordinary bill, however, as the funding expected is quite astronomical, and would be a massive research project if passed. It would be undertaken by the National Academy of Sciences.

Here is his pitch: “Major corporations, including the video game industry, make billions on marketing and selling violent content to children. They have a responsibility to protect our children. If they do not, you can count on the Congress to take a more aggressive role.”

The research deals about a lot of subjects including exposing children to violent content, the impact of violent content on their brains, change in behaviour and other things.

“With respect to violent video games, NAS must look at whether current or emerging aspects of games, like their interactive nature and the personal and vivid way violence is portrayed, have a unique impact on kids.

“Changes in technology now allow kids to access violent content online with less parental involvement. It is time for these two agencies to take a fresh look at these issues.”